Beyond Bliss

5.10.2016 Tuesday

Tick tock... Tick tock...

Only two days until I land in Denver!

Frankly, as I write this, I am finding it incredibly difficult to focus. For one, this past week has been the adventure of a lifetime. I cannot even begin to comprehend how blessed I was to have such an amazing time in Cusco. 

Moreover, while I am still beaming from ear to ear as I ponder those eight days of traveling, I am bubbly and giddy as I think about flying home to Colorado tomorrow night!

My heart is bursting; I am beyond euphoric. 

I know life is going to have its ups and downs, but I am so unbelievably high on life right now - I praise God for that and I ask him that he fills my heart with nothing but love and thanksgiving for him and his wisdom when the lows do come. 

So how did those eight days create such a gleeful spirit within me? Oh my friends, Cusco, Peru has won my heart.

It was an inexplainable eight days. Truly, I could tell stories and talk about my adventures for hours, but trekking to Machu Picchu is something that words can never fully describe - it is such a unique and personal experience for everyone. I now completely understand the popularity and desire of so many to ditch personal hygiene and embrace a, at times, physically taxing journey to reach the Mecca of Incan culture. Machu Picchu itself is mind-blowing and stunning. However, the voyage to get there is really what makes it the expedition of a lifetime. 

That said, I will try not to get too wordy here about my trek. I love writing about and sharing my travels with you all, but this one is so different. My pictures and words will never do it justice. I hope you all can make the venture to the beautiful mountain with its ruined city someday so that you can understand what I mean. Visiting Machu Picchu is not over-hyped and blown out of proportion. It's more than just the destination - it's the ride.

Alright. Here we go.

Saturday April 30th, 2016 - Flights and Plans

The night before our flight, we stayed at Francisco's house, since it is closer to the airport. We took off from Lima around 11:00 in the morning and landed in Cusco shortly after noon. We checked into our hostel (this place is awesome), grabbed lunch at The Meeting Place (also awesome), and spent the day scheduling and planning for the rest of the week.

Sunday May 1st, 2016 - Wandering the City

When planning a trek to Machu Picchu, it's recommended to spend a few days in Cusco before starting the trip to allow your body to adjust to the altitude (nearly 11,200 feet). Even as Colorado natives, we thought a low-key day on Sunday was probably best. We walked in whatever direction we felt and stumbled upon a food fair, a Jewish neighborhood, and a ginormous outdoor fruit, vegetable, and meat market (the smell was horrid). Kelsey and I spent the latter part of the day in the hostel, reading and calling home, found a delicious and cheap pizza place for dinner, met with our Inka Jungle Trail guide Guido , and packed our huge North Face backpacks for the next morning.

Monday May 2nd, 2016 - What did we sign up for?

We were picked up around 7:30 am. The bus quickly filled up with excited tourists and stopped for several minutes to attach a small trailer of bikes before heading out on the road for a couple of hours. The guides called our group Los Pumas. I would guess there were about 30 people total. 

From the moment we met her, Kelsey and I both connected with a young Colombian girl named Camila who has been living in New York for five years now. We ultimately ended up spending a large part of the trip with her. She was hilarious and fun-loving as well as unhesitatingly kind and considerate, going out of her way to notice and help others. Spending time with her is one of the biggest reasons this trip was so unforgettable.

Close to noon, we descended the bus, strapped on jackets, protective pads, helmets, and reflective vests (all very important since we were biking along a winding road with cars), and mounted our bikes. For nearly two hours, we followed the downhill pavement, whipping around the bends in the road and flying through the lush green of the Andes. We rode through at least ten rivers that cascaded onto the road, soaking in the sun and the views. Only hiccup was that the chain on my bike slipped off, so about fifteen minutes in I switched bikes. Other than that, it was a beautiful ride.

After lunch, we changed to go rafting. Kelsey and I hopped on the bus, excited for the day's next adventure.

And then, we were kicked off of the bus. 

Just our luck, there had been a mix up with the agency we had booked the tour with and our names had not been put on the list of rafters, so we couldn't go; there was no room for us. After a great deal of frustration and poor communication from our guides, we were informed that we could go the following morning.

Still, we didn't know how to spend the rest of our afternoon now that we had so much free time.

We decided to walk through the small town we were staying in, Santa Maria, but it took us no more than five minutes to see the majority of it. We purchased cards from one of the local convenience stores and for the next several hours we played and chatted (in Spanish and English) with some of the ladies in our group.

Around 9:30, we went to bed in our six-person room, knowing we had a busy day to come.


Monday May 3rd, 2016 - The. Longest. Day. Ever.

Rafting in the morning meant waking up at 5:30. When the alarm sounded, Kelsey and I rolled out of bed, stuffed everything in our backpacks, and slipped out the door as quietly as we could. Before the rafting service picked us up, we chowed down on some banana stuffed pancakes.

On our bus ride to the Urubamba River, our rafting instructor apologized for the poor scheduling and informed us that we were actually lucky - our group was much smaller than the group that had gone the night before (nine people compared to fifty) so we were going to be rafting a harder (read: more fun) part of the river. Dude wasn't kidding. Rafting was a kick! By far, my favorite adventure of the week. Falling out of the raft when we collided perfectly with a crashing current was a blast. Sorry Mom, but it really was awesome. "Nobody ever falls out!" Yeah, right Mr. Guide.

Rafting in the morning meant that we missed out on about two hours of that day's hike. Naturally, at first I was disappointed, but then I realized that we were only missing out on hiking along the road. Plus, the six hours of climbing and descending the dirt trails we did get to do with our giant backpacks were more than enough. Welcome to the first big picture portion of this post:

 There's a monkey on my shoulder!

At the end of our walk, we encountered the local hot springs. Even though the pools were overflowing with backpackers and hikers, the water felt heavenly on our tired muscles.

Around 7:00, we opted to pay a couple bucks to take a bus from the springs to our rest stop for the night, rather than walking another hour in the dark to arrive there.

Dinner and sleep were our only desires. After a non-surprisingly-delicious meal, Kelsey and I went to bed. We shared a room with Camila and Patty. Patty is a Chilean woman in her mid-thirties. We also became good friends with her during this wild adventure. For the majority of the trip, our group of four stuck together.


Wednesday May 4th, 2016 - I Believe I Can Fly

Early in the morning we zip lined. While this was definitely fun, Kelsey and I couldn't help but reminisce about when we zip lined through the jungle in Costa Rica... Something about that experience was just so much more fun, thrilling, and beautiful. That's not to say that we didn't love zip lining in Peru, but the Costa Rican one is just unbeatable in comparison. Maybe I'd just done too many crazy activities by this point that my adrenaline junky needs went unsatisfied... I'm basically the next Felix Baumgartner.

Like rafting, I wasn't able to take my phone with me on the lines. However, we were quite high up as we flew over the trees, houses, and river below us. The best line we crossed was the last one. There, we had the option to slide across the canyon normally, like Spider-Man, or like Superman. Spidey-pose looked something like this. Kelsey, along with the majority of our group, chose this pose. It was a tough decision, but I went with Superman. Superman pose meant taking off my harness and putting it on backwards. The strap of my harness that went across my lower back was then snapped to the line so that I could "fly." As if I was laying on my stomach, with my arms behind me, my legs straight, and my face towards the ground far below me, I flew. Epic.

To get back to where we started, we crossed a long suspension bridge that flipped on its sides with nearly every step and rattled in the wind. I approved.

The rest of the day was spent walking along the train tracks that lead to Aguascalientes, the town below Machu Picchu. We arrived in the town and checked into the hostel. Again, Kelsey, Patty, Camila, and I shared a room. This was also the only time of the trip where we had semi-functioning wi-fi. Funny how you really don't miss social media when you don't have access to it. Something to remember.

This was our last night with everyone in our group. While Kelsey and I had purchased the five day trip, nearly everyone else had chosen the four day trip. As such, I snuck out of our room for a few minutes and bought a bottle of Peruvian wine. With the girls, my new friends, we had a farewell cheers to a truly wonderful adventure with incredible people. Very giggly, we went to our "Last Supper" with the whole group. Great food, parades in the streets, and many laughs made for a memorable last evening with everyone.

Thursday May 5th, 2016 - Machu Picchu: Part Two

The first time we went to Machu Picchu, we took the bus to the park entrance. This time, Kelsey and I wanted to have the full hiking experience.

We woke at 4:00 a.m. to make it to the bridge crossing entrance that signals the beginning of the ascent to Machu Picchu. The bridge opens at 5:00 a.m. daily. We arrived around 4:50 to an already lengthy line only to watch it at least double by the time we made it across the bridge at 5:20. For the next hour, we climbed the twisting trail of stairs, an altitude change of about 1,350 meters, to make it to the top before sunrise.

Worth. It. 

Praise the Mighty-Powers-That-Be that we didn't need to take our over-sized packs with us.

Once we met up with the whole group, the guides began the tour of the lost city. Kelsey and I went with the Spanish-speaking tour group. This was something we did for the majority of the week and turned out to be a huge blessing. Not only did we practice our Spanish and, in my opinion, receive more thorough information since the guide was speaking in his native tongue, but we also made great friends, like Patty and Camila. 

After the tour, we were free to wander the park.

Fairly early, we began our journey back down the mountain, this time with Camila and Patty (they had taken the bus up). We spent the afternoon with them shopping and eating before saying our final farewells. Exhausted, Kelsey and I stayed in our hostel room relaxing. We both fell asleep before 9:00.

It was an extraordinarily excellent day.


Friday May 6th, 2016 - It's over?

This day was rather uneventful. Kelsey and I grabbed breakfast in Aguascalientes before starting our three hour hike along the railroad tracks we had walked on Wednesday. At the end of our walk, we met up with a bus that took us on a six and a half hour ride back to Cusco. It was the bumpiest ride of my life.

Saturday May 7th, 2016 - But, wait. I like it here. 

Back in the city of Cusco, I checked out the damage. Official bug bite count: 32

And, that's only counting my legs.

Our last day in Cusco was euphoric. No, seriously. It was fantastic. I'm sure there were many factors that made it so blissful. We had just finished an epic, solo journey to one of the Seven Wonders of the World, we were closer than ever to home, and we had a relaxing and fun-filled day ahead of us.

We began our morning with full body massages. It was just what our tired muscles needed and cost less than ten dollars per person.

From there, we stumbled into a place called El Museo del Cafe. On an adorable balcony, Kelsey and I sipped on great coffee produced in-house and split a piece of the best cheesecake we've found in Peru. It was pretty cheap, too! Only ten bucks! It's not on the tourist map for Cusco, but this is a must visit spot.

 

We spent the day walking around, shopping, and relaxing at the hostel. For lunch, we went to the San Blas Market for dirt cheap, fresh made sandwiches and juices. To finish our last day, we took a chocolate making class. Kelsey and I were the only ones who had signed up, so we had a private, nearly two hour long class with chocolate and Pisco Sours. And, guess what! It was cheap. Shocking, right?

 

 

It was the perfect day to end a perfect trip.


Sunday May 8th, 2016 - Back to Lima we go!

Our trip had officially ended. We woke up early and caught our morning flight back to Lima. Back in our apartment, we unpacked and resisted the urge to start packing right away for our flight home on Wednesday.



So close to home, Kelsey and I both are giddy as all get out. However, reality is slowly starting to hit as we clean up and the walls become bare again. Crazy to think that our eight months in Peru is coming to an end. Though at times incredibly difficult, it's been the adventure of a lifetime.

But more on that to come later.


Rad.

Ciao!

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!"
- Hunter S. Thompson, The Proud Highway

Quiero la aventura, el dolor, la amistad, la risa, las lagrimas, la experiencia, las dificultades, el amor, y todo que la vida puede ofrecerme.